iPhone: Orange, Swisscom, Jailbreak

Apple's deal with Orange seems conflicted, while hackers maintain the pressure on Cupertino to open up, and Switzerland's biggest mobile phone network want in on the iPhone action.

By
Jonny Evans
| 11 Oct 07

Apple has said that it still has no scheduled launch date for the iPhone in France, despite claims by Orange CEO Didier Lombard that the two companies had reached a distribution agreement.

It appears Apple is angry that Lombard described a deal between Apple and Orange as an "open secret" during a trip to Vietnam last month. Reports also claim Orange is kicking against Apple's demand for a third of iPhone-generated revenue.

The muddying of the deal hasn't put off Swiss mobile network, Swisscom, where chief executive Karsten Schloter told a local Swiss paper: "Like every telecommunications operator, we are very interested in iPhone. It is the first mobile phone that fully utilises the internet."

Apple's tight control on the device remains a sticking point for independent developers and hackers. All believe the device should be opened up for third-party development, a move Apple says it won't take (yet) because it wants to protect the integrity of the device.

Apple's recently released iPhone update 1.1.1 stopped many third-party hacks working on the device, and rendered unlocked iPhones inoperable ("bricked"). Now hackers at the Jailbreak project have managed to undo Apple's update to render iPhones accesible for third-party apps once again.

iPhoneSimFree quickly followed up the Jailbreak project with the release of a new version of its software, which unlocks the iPhone for use on other networks and will also restore a bricked iPhone.

It's not just the iPhone. Hackers now claim to have unlocked the iPod touch, making it possible to install applications, such as Mail and Maps, on the device, once again using code from the Jailbreak project, EnGadget reports.